LOS ANGELES — At least 25 streets and 46 schools are named in his honor, but many young people
know little about Cesar Chavez — who in life was a polarizing figure, most famous for the
successful series of marches, fasts and strikes he led on behalf of mostly immigrant farm
workers.

The next big act of Chavez’s posthumous career began this month, with the first dramatic film
about the towering Chicano figure and a major biography both released last week.

Both seek to reclaim Chavez’s place in the American memory, but the book and the movie offer
markedly different portraits of a man who joined the pantheon of American civic saints after his
death in 1993.

In the film
Cesar Chavez, by a Mexican production team led by actor-director Diego Luna, Chavez is a
heroic and beatific figure who uses nonviolence to lead his people to victory. The movie ends with
Chavez’s United Farm Workers winning contracts in 1970 from recalcitrant growers.

The Crusades of Cesar Chavez, by former
Los Angeles Times editor and reporter Miriam Pawel, follows Chavez from his birth in
Depression-era Arizona and his father’s loss of the family farm to his death, following a long
period in which his labor union was in decline.

Much of the second half of the book delves into his isolation and his embrace of what some saw
as a cult of personality.

For Luna, the movie was a four-year crusade, and he worked largely outside the Hollywood studio
system.

Hollywood executives suggested that Luna cast one of two bankable Spanish heartthrobs, Antonio
Banderas or Javier Bardem, as the lead. Instead he gave the role to Michael Pena, who had a small
role in
American Hustle.

Mexican investors put up much of the funding for the $10 million film.

Chavez declined offers to have dramatic films made about him during his lifetime, and since his
death he has appeared on the big screen mostly in documentaries.

Luna made Chavez’s family life the emotional center of his story. He said he ignored another
executive who asked, “How can you make this more sexy?”

“I said that this is beyond sexy,” Luna said. “It’s not even just the story of Cesar Chavez. It’s
the story of a movement.”

Cesar Chavez is filled with authentic visual details, including the religious iconography
that was a staple of United Farm Workers events and the infamous “short hoes” that ravaged the
bodies of farm workers forced to use them.

At 101 minutes, the film limits itself to a decade in Chavez’s life.

The book is the first full-scale biography.

“I’m writing beyond the hagiography,” Pawel said. “It does him a disservice to portray him” in a
simplistic way.

Chavez earned his saintly hue by going on a 25-day fast in 1968 that helped turned public
opinion in the union’s favor — an event that is key in Luna’s film. But the film only fleetingly
captures the real Chavez’s genius for strategy and tactics, Pawel said. Chavez could also be a
gruff leader who gave no quarter to perceived enemies — a quality he acknowledged.

“There is a big difference between being a saint and being an angel,” he told a reporter in an
interview quoted in Pawel’s book. “Saints are known for being tough and stubborn.”

The sharply different perspectives reflect how the film and book were made. The family met
extensively with Luna and the cast.

But Pawel is persona non grata to Chavez’s descendants, largely because she wrote a 2006
Times series that portrayed the modern-day United Farm Workers as an organization that
does little to improve the lot of workers.